Absorbent articles such as disposable diapers for infants and small children and adult incontinence products have long been known in the art. These articles are designed to absorb and contain body exudates such as urine and fecal matter. Ideally these products fit snugly and prevent leakage of exudates.
Typically, conventional diaper products for infants and small children have included a front waist portion, and a rear waist portion which are releasably connected about the hips of the wearer during use by fasteners such as adhesive tape fasteners or hook and loop type fasteners. Commonly such diapers were put on by laying the baby on its back, positioning the diaper between the baby's legs and fastening the fasteners about the waist.
More recently, there have been several prior art disposable absorbent articles of the so called “pants” type. These are articles designed to absorb and contain body exudates which are typically in a closed waist configuration and which are designed to be pulled up over the hips of the wearer into position around the waist and between the legs. This pulling up of such articles may be accomplished by a caregiver, by the wearer (such as a child) alone, or by the wearer with assistance from a caregiver. Typically, such pants type articles have a stretchable portion, such as a stretchable side area which expands to allows the article to be pulled over the hips and then retracts somewhat to provide a conforming fit of the article. Often such pants type articles are provided with a seamed area, such as seamed sides. The seams of such articles may be broken, such as by tearing, for removal of the article. A variation of the pants type articles are absorbent articles which are provided in a closed waist (or “pants”) configuration and which can be pulled over the hips of the wearer into place about the waist. These articles are also provided, however, with a refastenable seamed area, such as refastenable side seams. A hook and loop fastener is one example of a refastenable seam which is known in the art used in conjunction with a pants type absorbent article for babies or young children.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,526, although not the first to do so, describes a pant like garment having pre-fastened hook and loop type fasteners at the side of the article. PCT Patent application WO 00/37016 discloses articles with primary and secondary fasteners where at least one of the fasteners are mechanical in nature. U.S. Pat. No. 6,287,287 discloses a refastenable primary fastener with passive side bonds located inwardly of said primary fasteners. The primary fasteners are mechanical in nature.
While some pants type absorbent articles with refastenable features have enjoyed some commercial success, use of currently available diaper fastening systems has drawbacks in this context. For example, the use of adhesives as part of a diaper fastening system has the drawbacks that adhesive may stick to itself or stick to portions of the article where such sticking is not desired. Other locations of undesired sticking may include skin, hair, etc. Mechanical fasteners, such as a hook and loop fasteners also have drawbacks. For example, hook type fasteners also may have a tendency to attach to undesired locations such as clothing, carpet, or the wearer (even if no sticking takes place, hooks may irritate the wearer's skin). Additionally, hooks and loops may prove challenging to integrate into a pant form with appropriate peel forces. If peel forces are too low, then children may have a tendency to remove the absorbent article when such removal is undesired. Other potential drawback of conventional mechanical fasteners is that many require an area without stretch properties in the overall article. This creates somewhat of a design paradox if stretch is generally desired in the side area of the product, but the mechanical fastener (such as a hook and loop) which is also to be placed on the side must be placed in an area without stretch properties. The compromise made is typically to limit the size of the hook and loop fastening area which results in a lack of versatility of the product and can lead to compromise on either the desired fastener strength properties or the stretch properties of the side portion of the article.
Another problem often associated with mechanical type fasteners is that they can tend to become damaged during the high speed operations required for commercially viable manufacture of pant like disposable garments. For example, hooks tend to get damaged during manufacture, and other mechanical type fasteners such as buttons, tab and slots, or the like can also become damaged, torn, or otherwise impacted by the challenges of high speed handling.
The articles of the present invention provide pants type disposable garments which overcome the drawbacks associated with mechanical type fasteners and also avoiding the problems seen with conventional adhesive fasteners. By employing various types of selective adhesive fastening techniques either alone or in combination with fastening techniques, the articles described herein offer improved versatility, fit, refastening performance over those previously known in the art. These and other advantages of the articles of the present invention will become apparent in light of the description below.